August 2011 Archives

How long would you wait for a job interview?

If you would give up on a potential gig after only 15 months, you don't have the patience to wait for a seat on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

President Barack Obama nominated Edward DuMont for the bench on April 14, 2010. DuMont has been waiting in judicial limbo ever since, while three other judges who were nominated after DuMont - Fifth Circuit Judge James Graves, Second Circuit Judge Susan Carney, and Federal Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna - have already been confirmed.

Nuclear waste is a pain in the reactor.

With that in mind, the federal enacted the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) almost 30 years ago to authorize the Secretary of Energy to enter into contracts with nuclear plant utilities to accept and dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste in return for the utilities paying into a Nuclear Waste Fund.

It was under this plan that in June 1983, the Department of Energy (DOE) entered into the “Standard Contract,” with Southern California Edison (SCE) for the acceptance of spent nuclear fuel produced at SCE’s San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ... mellorine?

If Arko Foods International's mellorine is your preferred non-dairy, frozen dessert you can rest assured that your favorite treat remains something "other" than "an article of milk."

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the product, mellorine is frozen dessert similar to ice cream, but with vegetable or animal fat substituted for at least some of the butterfat. Arko imports six flavors of mellorine relevant to this case: purple yam, fruit salad, mango, macapuno, (a type of coconut), durian, (a fruit), and Quezo Royale, (a cheese and coconut flavor also known as Quezo Real).

You may have friends who are intellectual property attorneys. They're super-smart, enjoy their jobs, and make bank. We don't know how they do it.

For those of us with liberal arts backgrounds, reviewing a 50-page patent opinion necessitates full brainpower, two cups of coffee, and (legally obtained) Ritalin. At least it did before we learned about patent trolls.

Judicially reprehensible patent trolls.

President Barack Obama nominated Judge Evan Jonathan Wallach to serve on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week. Wallach has served as a judge on the United States Court of International Trade in New York since 1995. He has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School.

Originally from Superior, Ariz., Judge Wallach served in the Vietnam War before returning to complete his degree at the University of Arizona in 1973. He received his J.D. from University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law in 1976, and also received an LL.B. in public international law from University of Cambridge Law School in 1981.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal District ruled on Friday that human genes can be patented.

The decision in the genome patent case, which could affect the long-term cost of genetic testing, came as a relief to the biotechnology industry and a shock to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation, which challenged the patents in the case.